1.Congress finds that—
(1)on June 25, 1941,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8802, establishing
the Fair Employment Practices Commission and opening the doors for Black
individuals to enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first
time;
(2)the first Black
Marine recruits were trained at Camp Montford Point, near the New River in
Jacksonville, North Carolina;
(3)on August 26,
1942, Howard P. Perry of Charlotte, North Carolina, was the first Black private
to set foot on Montford Point;
(4)during April
1943, the first Black Marine drill instructors took over as the senior drill
instructors of the 8 platoons then in training, including—
(A)Edgar R. Huff,
16th Platoon;
(B)Thomas Brokaw,
17th Platoon;
(C)Charles E. Allen,
18th Platoon;
(D)Gilbert H.
Johnson, 19th Platoon;
(E)Arnold R. Bostic,
20th Platoon;
(F)Mortimer A. Cox,
21st Platoon;
(G)Edgar R. Davis,
Jr., 22nd Platoon; and
(H)George A.
Jackson, 23rd Platoon;
(5)Black Marines of
the 8th Ammunition Company and the 36th Depot Company landed on the Island of
Iwo Jima on D-Day, February 19, 1945;
(6)the largest
number of Black Marines to serve in combat during World War II took part in the
seizure of Okinawa in the Ryuku Islands, with some 2,000 Black Marines seeing
action during the campaign;
(7)on November 10,
1945, Frederick C. Branch, the was the first Black Marine to be commissioned as
a Second Lieutenant, at the Marine Base in Quantico, Virginia;
(8)overall, 19,168
Black Americans served in the Marine Corps in World War II;
(9)16 years after
the closure of Montford Point as a training facility for Black recruits, an
enterprising group of men, including original Montford Point Master Sergeant
Brooks E. Gray, planned a reunion of the Men of Montford Point
,
and on September 15, 1965, approximately 400 Montford Point Marines gathered at
the Adelphi Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and laid the foundation for
the Montford Point Marine Association Inc.;
(10)organized as a
nonmilitary, nonprofit entity, the Montford Point Marine Association has as its
main mission to preserve the legacy of the first Black Marines, and today the
Association has 36 chapters throughout the United States;
(11)many of the
first Black Marines stayed in the Marine Corps for a career, including Sergeant
Major Edgar R. Huff, 1 of the very first recruits at Montford Point;
(12)Sergeant Major
Huff was the first Black Sergeant Major and the first Black Marine to retire
with 30 years of service, which included combat in 3 major conflicts, World War
II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War;
(13)Sergeant Major
Huff was awarded the Bronze Star medal with a combat V
for valor
for saving the life of his radio operator during the Tet Offensive in
Vietnam;
(14)another original
Montford Point Marine who saw extensive combat action in both the Korean
Conflict and the Vietnam War was Sergeant Major Louis Roundtree, who was
awarded the Silver Star, 4 Bronze Stars, 3 Purple Hearts, and numerous other
personal and unit awards for his service during those conflicts;
(15)on April 19,
1974, Montford Point was renamed Camp Johnson
, after legendary
Montford Point Marine Sergeant Major Gilbert Hashmark
Johnson;
and
(16)the Montford
Point Marine Association has several memorials in place to perpetuate the
memory of who they were and what they accomplished, including—
(A)the Montford
Point Marine Association Edgar R. Huff Memorial Scholarship, which is offered
annually through the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation;
(B)the Montford
Point Museum located at Camp Johnson in Jacksonville, North Carolina;
(C)the Brooks Elbert
Gray, Jr. Consolidated Academic Instruction Facility, named in honor of
original Montford Point Marine and Montford Point Marine Corps Association
founder Master Gunnery Sergeant Gray (dedicated on April 15, 2005, at Camp
Johnson, North Carolina); and
(D)Branch Hall, a
building within the Officers Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia, which was
named in honor of Captain Frederick Branch during July of 1997.
2.
(a)The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the
President pro tempore of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the
award, on behalf of the Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design
to the Montford Point Marines, United States Marine Corps, collectively, in
recognition of their dedicated service during World War II.
(b)For the purposes of the award referred to in subsection
(a), the Secretary of the Treasury (hereafter in this Act referred to as the
Secretary
) shall strike the gold medal with suitable emblems,
devices, and inscriptions, to be determined by the Secretary.
(c)
(1)Following the award of the gold medal in honor of the
Montford Point Marines, United States Marine Corps, under subsection (a), the
gold medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution, where it will be
displayed as appropriate and made available for research.
(2)It is the sense of Congress that the Smithsonian
Institution should make the gold medal received under paragraph (1) available
for display elsewhere, particularly at other appropriate locations associated
with the Montford Point Marines, United States Marine Corps.
3.Under such regulations
as the Secretary may prescribe, the Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in
bronze of the gold medal struck under section 2, at a price sufficient to cover
the costs of the medals, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery,
and overhead expenses.
4.Medals struck pursuant
to this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United
States Code.
5.Authorization of
appropriations; proceeds of sale
(a)Authorization
of appropriationsThere is authorized to be charged against the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund, an amount not to exceed $30,000 to
pay for the cost of the medal authorized under section 2.
(b)Amounts received from the sale of duplicate bronze medals
under section 3 shall be deposited in the United States Mint Public Enterprise
Fund.